Farewell, Hong Kong
This is a picture of my first day in Hong Kong – May 13, 2020.
It was the beginning of the pandemic, so I had to wear a clunky wrist tracker during my two weeks quarantine.
Moving to Hong Kong was not something I initially wanted to do; I just got a random job offer that was too good an opportunity to pass up.
It wasn’t an easy decision to move because of all the negative press, and it was depressing those first few months when the pandemic made it difficult for me to make new friends.
But eventually, restrictions were lifted. I made new friends, and went to multiple events and places. Now I can honestly say that I was pleasantly surprised at how nice my life there turned out, actually.
But after 4 years there, I boarded a plane on the 29th of July to leave for Toronto, Canada.
By the way, I noticed a funny coincidence – every time I made a leap to a new city, it happened to fall on a leap year. 2004 to Makati, 2008 to Singapore, 2020 to Hong Kong, and now 2024 to Toronto. 🤯
Days before that, I had to say goodbye to my Hong Kong apartment, which is the first ever apartment that I had to live in on my own. I did not expect to get emotional as I looked around the empty apartment that had been my home for 4 years. But then again, I did not expect to get emotional about having to sell my TV, either. 😅
My cat and I then moved in with my friend Beulah for a couple of days.
Beulah and I bonded over rewatching the first 2 Deadpool movies on TV to refresh our memories, because we were going to watch Deadpool & Wolverine in the cinema.
We had dinner at Dim Sum Library @ Pacific Place, then got so amused when we realized we had accidentally worn Wolverine and Deadpool’s colors. 😂
My friends threw a farewell party for me. I was so glad that I had an opportunity to physically say goodbye to people this time around, unlike when I left Singapore and the pandemic restrictions limited me to Zoom call farewells.
They got me a cute cake and some presents. King got me a stamp of my name in Chinese characters. May got me a Burberry scarf. Beulah got me a lipstick which is apt for us because we both always reach for one before taking a photo.
On the day of my flight, Beulah and I rode an Uber to the airport while the pet relocation agent I hired brought my cat there directly.
While I was in the queue to check in, I was surprised to see that other friends had come to see me off as well.
Then after I walked inside, they had another surprise for me in my email – a Thankbox card with their touching farewell messages. 🥺
I definitely had the time of my life in Hong Kong. So I made a reel of my memories with the soundtrack from Deadpool and Wolverine and hit publish before boarding my flight.
